


[Glee Meta] Why I Headcanon Marley as a Sex-Repulsed Asexual Girl

by luvtheheaven



Series: Metas I've Written (Various Fandoms) [6]
Category: Glee
Genre: Asexual Character, Asexuality, F/M, Gen, Meta, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-31
Updated: 2014-10-31
Packaged: 2018-02-23 10:16:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2543900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luvtheheaven/pseuds/luvtheheaven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>First posted, in 3 parts, to tumblr, in honor of #aawfc (the Asexuality Awareness Week Fandom Challenge), this is one example of a character I headcanon as asexual, and why.</p><p>This is not a fanfic. This is not about shipping Ryder/Marley (Ryley) vs. shipping Jake/Marley (Jarley). This is a meta analysis essay I've written, complete with screenshot illustrations and quotes from the show, to try to analyze whether or not Marley experiences sexual attraction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	[Glee Meta] Why I Headcanon Marley as a Sex-Repulsed Asexual Girl

Edited in September 2017 to add - I just edited this fanvideo featuring a few Marley moments:   
And also all the pictures are still available on tumblr, at some point when I have time I will replace all the broken photobucket links with the screenshots.

_**Author's Note:** If you'd prefer to view this on tumblr, and/or if you'd enjoy reblogging or "liking" my posts, check out the first one [**here**](http://luvtheheaven.tumblr.com/post/101437713147/i-have-no-clue-how-to-do-photosets-as-i-never-do), and note that the second and third parts are linked to within that post as well._  
  
_**Also note:** I am a 24-year old cis-woman who identifies as a non-libidoist, sex-averse, wtfromantic asexual. For more details, check out my blog:_

_**[I think I’m… wtfromantic. Or maybe heteroromantic. Or aromantic? Or panromantic? AH I DON’T KNOW.](http://luvtheheaven.wordpress.com/2014/03/22/i-think-im-wtfromantic-or-maybe-heteroromantic-or-aromantic-or-panromantic-ah-i-dont-know/) ** _

  
_[ **My Doubts about Not Wanting to Have Sex (and my journey through the depths of Scarleteen’s sex-positive sex-ed website)** ](http://luvtheheaven.tumblr.com/post/88072764132/my-doubts-about-not-wanting-to-have-sex-and-my-journey) _

  
_[ **Am I sex-averse? Maybe. I have made a decision to identify as such.** ](http://luvtheheaven.wordpress.com/2014/07/23/am-i-sex-averse-maybe-i-have-made-a-decision-to-identify-as-such/) _

_[ **My “wtfromantic” identity label has become very significant to me…** ](http://luvtheheaven.wordpress.com/2014/08/13/my-wtfromantic-identity-label-has-become-very-significant-to-me/) _

_etc. I have_ many _more posts where those came from._

* * *

So... here goes.

[**Day 2:** A female character you see as asexual. ](http://owenhqrper.tumblr.com/post/100512276495)  


**Marley Rose ( _Glee_ ).**

I have not been participating in this Asexuality Awareness Week Fandom Challenge (other than reblogging many of the awesome postings on the #aawfc tag), but I decided that today I could do one that's been on my mind for ages now.

I like to think of Marley as a sex-repulsed asexual girl, like me. I have been headcanoning her this way. I see so much of myself in her. So much so that I plan to make her wtfromantic like me too, [when I write my massive ace glee fanfic](http://undefinedkosmos.tumblr.com/post/99504207896/what-is-out-with-a-bang). In some ways she's not like me at all, and I plan to put parts of myself into various "ace" Glee characters in my fic, but Marley's the closest to me in many ways, I think.

I have not experienced living with an eating disorder but I know having an eating disorder can complicate identifying as ace, because of various factors, everything from ["the unassailable asexual" concept](http://queenieofaces.tumblr.com/post/96381155003/august-2014-carnival-of-aces-round-up) to [other more nuanced issues](http://taikonenfea.wordpress.com/2014/04/08/im-afraid-of-identifying-as-asexual/)... and I think for representation purposes, it's good to show that people of all kinds can be ace, including those people with eating disorders.

But as for evidence that I think supports viewing Marley as ace:

She doesn't ever mention that she finds Jake or Ryder sexy/hot/attractive.

When Unique asks her about boys, she calls Jake "kinda cute" and then clarifies it's not because of his body or looks but rather because "he's an artist". This sounds like a form of attraction that is NOT sexual to me. She also doesn't volunteer this information, doesn't bring up Jake first - Unique asks her and then she has to come up with an answer!

Later on, while Ryder is clearly viewing her as sexy, she's already beginning to struggle with her eating disorder and she's not paying attention to him or his looks at all. She appreciates him kissing her and performs "You're The One That I Want" successfully in the school musical, but she doesn't like kissing him so much that she wants to try again anytime soon - in fact, she doesn't seem to think twice about going out with Jake instead in the next episode.

When her eating disorder causes problems for her & her relationship with Jake, she tells Brittany that the problems are that he has stopped calling her. That sounds like her favorite thing about dating Jake is just the talking side of things. To be fair, it could mean that he's stopped going out with her at all, and calling is just the first step toward everything else and if he's stopped calling that means everything's stopped. But it _could_ also mean that he's stopped wanting to have phone conversations with her, which she loves. And it also is a moment where Marley _could've explicitly said_ she misses something sexual or sensual that she used to do with Jake, and instead here all Marley admits to missing is the simplest of things, Jake calling her.

At the dance, she simply tells Jake she likes him. He says she has pretty eyes and she does not respond with anything physical about him that she appreciates. She mentions that she tends to miss signs, and she's referring to signs that someone might hurt her, but I think Marley's naivety can be extended to lots of things, and from where I'm watching, I think she also tends to miss signs of him & Ryder being sexually attracted to her.

She specifically mentions how important it is to her to take things slow quite early on. Before even their first kiss, as far as we know (although when she and Jake first kiss is unclear - so at least before their first onscreen kiss), she is already feeling like things might go too fast for her, and I can relate to that.

She then chooses cheek kisses multiple times and I can also relate to preferring that kind of kiss, finding it more intimate and less... gross, I guess - then the experience of a kiss on the mouth. A kiss on the cheek involves zero risk of tongue being added. :P

When the boys and the cheerleaders perform "Centerfold/Hot in Herre", Marley seems to be enjoying the performance the same way she enjoys any musical performance, meanwhile Unique and other girls are overwhelmed with the hotness. Marley isn't featured as someone making a big fuss over the boys in episode 4x12 "Naked", not even over her boyfriend.

In episode 4x14 "I Do", Marley doesn't seem interested in having sex in the slightest. She has not taken a vow of celibacy like Quinn, she has not expressed the ideas that it is just a big deal because she is a virgin and she wants losing her virginity to be perfect or something... no, Marley isn't even shown to find Jake sexy, or to enjoy passionate making out sessions.

I didn't include this in the photoset below, but at the end of 4x14 "I Do", Ryder kisses Marley, and as she says in the next episode (4x15 "Girls (and Boys) on Film"), she "lets" Ryder kiss her. She doesn't exactly kiss him back or get sucked into it uncontrollably. She definitely didn't initiate it. Kitty asks her, "Was he any good, or did his humongous donkey teeth bite into your lips?" and Marley answers, "He was good, but I still like Jake." Marley doesn't compare how kissing Jake feels to Ryder - which person's kisses she enjoys more, anything like that. She just mimics Kitty's wording of "good". It's easy for me to headcanon Marley as not actually enjoying the kissing.

And I could see an interpretation of the pottery scene that mimics the film _Ghost_ where Marley "fantasizes" about kissing Ryder as her enjoying it, but I can just as easily think she's just feeling guilty about the fact that they kissed and is just thinking about that fact, not that she's actually actively fantasizing.

By 5x04 "A Katy or a Gaga", Marley seems visibly uncomfortable with Jake finding her sexy.

When Jake says: "You are such a Katy. I don't know how you're gonna pull off being a Gaga."

Marley gets defensive and replies: "Why? Because I like cats and flowers and Julie Andrews? That doesn't mean I can't rock a bra made out of gloved leather hands."

But as soon as she says that, Jake responds: "Ooh, and I cannot wait to see that." and [Marley looks very uncomfortable at the thought. She's not flattered.](https://asexualagenda.wordpress.com/2014/08/04/hijab-as-leave-me-alone-im-not-interested/) She's, if anything, freaked out, and later in the episode when Unique warns her that Bree is going to tempt Jake to stray from his monogamous relationship with Marley, she exclaims, "What am I supposed to do?! I'm not like that. I'm not that kind of girl." and she seems upset. She is encouraged by Unique to "go full Gaga and show them both that you can be hardcore, too." But then Marley decides "I'm not gonna get paranoid about Jake. Either he wants to be with the real me or he can go." and decides NOT to wear a bikini made of seashells for her Gaga performance (leading to her teacher suspending her from school? WTF, Glee?). But it's not just that, it's even the wig.

She is surprised and again not flattered but rather uncomfortable by the thought of Jake enjoying seeing her in the wig. Still, she leaves it on. She wants to make him happy.

They make out passionately on his bed, and she isn't afraid to have boundaries, to ask him to stop first with just her hands pushing his hands away and then later with her words, but when Jake says "Can we have an honest conversation about this?" Marley seems reluctant, like she is unsure of what she's feeling and why,  like she can't be honest with him. Jake's words imply that they never talk about these things, that he doesn't know what page she's on.

 

 

 

 

> Jake: The whole point to being boyfriend/girlfriend is that we hang out and spend all this time together so that we can appreciate and trust each other.
> 
> Marley: I totally appreciate and trust you.
> 
> Jake: And what better place is there to explore certain aspects of ourselves than here?
> 
> Marley: Are you telling me that the only reason you hang out with me and all that is just so I'll let you touch my boobs?
> 
> Jake: What? No. No, no. Of course not. But I feel like you won't even consider it. Like you don't care that it's bumming me out.
> 
> Marley: Well, what do you want me to do? I just don't want to be pressured into doing something I don't want to do!

I think Marley is being completely honest throughout this exchange. She _does_ trust and appreciate Jake. He did stop when she wanted to stop. But he's frustrated because he sees no end in sight to the "waiting" for more sexual things - note not just sex, but for Marley even him touching her boob from the outside of her clothing is off-limits. And instead of Marley saying anything about not being ready "yet", about wanting it but not wanting it at the same time and having conflicting emotions, about any of that... no, instead, she says she "just doesn't want to" do it (which is compatible with an interpretation of "at all"). She doesn't seem interested in "Exploring certain aspects of herself", and instead of logically responding to that question of Jake's, she responds tearfully, visibly upset at the idea that all Jake wants is to touch her. And while anyone would be upset if that was all their boyfriend wanted from them, allosexual or not, I just get the impression that Marley is speaking from a sex-repulsed and to some degree touch-repulsed ace perspective.

Interestingly, she doesn't get together with Ryder later in the season after Jake does cheat on her. She doesn't feel "ready", ever.

I mean consider this conversation in episode 5x11 "City of Angels":

 

 

 

 

> Ryder: Look, you and me are probably never gonna happen. And like, I'm slowly accepting that. But that doesn't mean I don't care about you. Or that I don't occasionally look at your Facebook page to check your status.
> 
> Marley: Single, and it's going to stay that way.

Why is it going to stay that way, Marley? Are you like me, wtfromantic and confused about if you want a boyfriend/to date? :P Are you on the aromantic spectrum? I think it's interesting that Marley's run on the show ended this way, and I worry about what will happen if/when they show Marley's storyline again in season 6, because they potentially will contradict my ace headcanon. But honestly, as the show is now, I think Marley works fantastically well as a wtfromantic sex-repulsed ace girl who writes songs, loves her trans best friend and is jealous of her confidence:

(remember episode 4x08 "Thanksgiving"?)

 

 

 

 

> Marley: Unique, you're back!
> 
> Unique: Yes, in all her glory. And as you can see, Miss Marley, she is ready for her close-up.
> 
> Marley: I thought your parents didn't want you wearing-
> 
> Unique: They don't. They're trying to protect me. But what they need to understand is if I'm not being true to myself at least when I'm performing, then there won't be anything left inside me to protect.

And Marley has the saddest look on her face as she says that, clearly thinking about how she herself is not being true to herself in some way. This episode is focused on Marley's eating disorder. And all of Marley's problems in the episode have to do with that.

But as Unique continues...

 

 

 

 

> Unique: ...I will not and I cannot be ashamed of who I am or how I look.
> 
> Marley: You look beautiful. I think it's inspiring how brave and proud you are.

Marley is my beautiful headcanoned as ace baby and no one can take that from me. One day, she'll be brave and proud in her asexual identity, [but first she needs to discover the word. She needs to realize she's not broken](http://theacetheist.wordpress.com/2014/05/08/allonormativity-self-vs-other-and-the-delayed-realization/).

_**This concludes my ridiculously long essay on why I headcanon Marley as ace. I hope you've enjoyed it. :P** _

_**Please leave me kudos, or better yet, a comment, to let me know if you actually read the whole thing.  
** _

 

 


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